In this edition of the Panda Pod, guest host Erin Haire joins us as we sit down with Marcia Johnson-Blanco. Then we are revisited by a friend of the pod.

Learn more about The Election Protection Hotline by calling 866-Our-Vote or visiting www.866ourvote.org.

Learn more about the ASL Voter Hotline by calling 301-818-VOTE or visiting www.nad.org/voter-information/

Michelle Bishop:

Hi everyone. Welcome to episode two of the new, the improved, The Panda Pod, your one and only podcast for the P&A network. This is Michelle Bishop, one third of your hosting team.

Stephanie Flynt:

And I’m Stephanie Flynt, one of the two thirds of your hosting team coming from my closet.

Michelle Bishop:

I don’t know if you had to tell people that, but yes. And just as shorter, unfortunately, our third host is on a little bit of a hiatus, but we have a very special guest hosting with us today. Erin, tell the people who you are.

Erin Haire:

Hi everyone. I’m Erin Haire. Happy to be the third hostess with the mostest. I am the voting rights specialist here at NDRN and happy to chat about all things voting with you guys.

Michelle Bishop:

Does it sound like the voting team at NDRN is taking over this podcast?

Erin Haire:

That’s the way it should be.

Michelle Bishop:

I agree.

Stephanie Flynt:

No one voted on that.

Michelle Bishop:

Oh, sick voting burn. I respect it, Stephanie.

Stephanie Flynt:

But I burnt myself too, so it’s okay.

Michelle Bishop:

Well, actually this episode is going to be all about voting because today is November 1st, which means that if you have not voted yet, you have one week left to get the job done. Midterm elections are coming up on November 8th, so we are going to be talking all things voting on this episode. We have a special guest today who’s going to be talking to us all about the Election Protection Coalition and options for voters who have difficulty voting on election day. We’re going to have a really cool spotlight story from a very special top secret guest who used to be a poll worker. And before we can get to all that, let’s talk about P&As in the news. What are the hot topics going on lately?

Jack Rosen:

Okay. And I’ll pull that up. And in the meanwhile, Michelle, do I just not get an intro anymore?

Michelle Bishop:

Do we intro? Wait, can we vote on this? Who thinks we should intro Jack, our producer?

Stephanie Flynt:

Aye…oh wow I’m all alone.

Michelle Bishop:

Did we not vote on that? This is little awkward.

Erin Haire:

I’m affirmative.

Stephanie Flynt:

Okay, good. Exercise your right to vote, ya’ll. That’s like the whole –

Michelle Bishop:

Jack Rosen with our communications team, our digital communications specialist, Senior Digital… Jack, what is your title? I can’t introduce you.

Jack Rosen:

Senior Digital Communications Specialist.

Michelle Bishop:

I was very close. In my defense, I was very close.

Stephanie Flynt:

I was like, this is so suspenseful.

Michelle Bishop:

Wait, I’m sorry. Stephanie, do you not have major news for us right now?

Stephanie Flynt:

Yes, you could call it major news. I’m going to start over.

Michelle Bishop:

A little bill that maybe got signed into law recently. I’m just saying.

Stephanie Flynt:

Well, after working on this legislation for some time now, I’m super excited to announce that the PAVA Inclusion Act is now the law of the land. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with the PAVA Inclusion Act, essentially what happened was the Northern Marina Islands and the Native American Consortium we’re not included in the allocation of PAVA funding for the past 20 years. And so we were finally, finally, finally able to get PAVA amended so that they can be included in funding this fiscal year. So super excited about that.

Michelle Bishop:

Woo woo. Yes, PAVA Inclusion Act. This is Michelle and I just want to say to Native American Disability Law Center, the Northern Marina Islands, if you haven’t heard from me yet, you’re about to. Please tell me how I can provide you training and technical assistance for your brand new PAVA program. Woo woo. I’m so excited. Also, any bill that passes, any voting bill in particular that passes unanimously out of Senate, deserves to get signed.

Erin Haire:

And it’s a humbling reminder of how it might take 20 years to correct one instance of some legislative oversight. So it’s an exciting lesson for us all working in policy.

Michelle Bishop:

How a bill becomes law, I guess.

Stephanie Flynt:

Cue the Schoolhouse Rock music.

Michelle Bishop:

Oh, we need new intro music.

Jack Rosen:

We do not have the rights to that music, Stephanie.

Michelle Bishop:

Oh, Jack, this is why you don’t get an intro.

Jack Rosen:

Don’t even say the word schoolhouse. Don’t say rock.

Stephanie Flynt:

Disclaimer. We do not have the rights to this music. Any references to this music being on this podcast is…

Michelle Bishop:

Stephanie has a great disclaimer voice.

Stephanie Flynt:

Thank you. Thank you. If we ever need to record any disclaimers, I’m happy to do that. I can even record a disclaimer about me saying chicken nugget. So we’ll need that.

Michelle Bishop:

Yeah. You haven’t recorded any episodes with Justice yet, so I promise you we will need some disclaimers.

Stephanie Flynt:

I can totally help with that. I love doing that kind of thing. It’s so much fun. I did a lot of practicing when I was 11, so I was born for this.

Michelle Bishop:

All right. What else do we have in the news, folks?

Jack Rosen:

All right. Also in the news, Senator Duckworth and Representative Sarbanes introduce bill to make websites and mobile applications accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Stephanie Flynt:

Wow. Yes. We are super excited about this. Now, essentially this project started in… It’s crazy to think that it started back in January of 2021. The National Federation of the Blind originally started to spearhead this project and now are working with and have been working with the American Council of the Blind and of course the National Disability Rights Network and the American Foundation for the Blind. So super excited to see the community come together to work on this legislation and just make sure that it is going to benefit all folks with disabilities. Folks who utilize stream reading technology. I can tell you right now that there are times when I have taken, for example, a ride share somewhere. I may go outside two hours later after whatever event and request an Uber only to find that the app has been updated and all of a sudden isn’t accessible. So a lot of these instances have happened and of course instances like that have happened on websites where I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to go through and use different browsers for different websites and still haven’t come to a solution. So definitely a step in the right direction, and I hope to see this. I know that this is going to make change sooner rather than later.

Erin Haire:

This is also very exciting for us in the voting field because voting advocates are constantly telling folks check your registration online, check the status of your ballot online. And some of those state voting websites, the election websites are not accessible. So this would be a huge victory for us in the voting field as well.

Michelle Bishop:

The slow voting take over of the podcast. You see how we slip that in there? The voting take over of the podcast. It’s coming. If NDRN wants to stop us, then they’re going to have to start putting up some other host, cause we’re taking over.

Stephanie Flynt:

Is this where we insert a poll to see if we should take over?

Michelle Bishop:

We do love voting. Jack, anything else going on in the network?

Jack Rosen:

In Illinois, a class action lawsuit has been filed in the Cook County Circuit Court against a nursing home operator. This lawsuit has been filed by AARP and Equipped For Equality, the Illinois P&A is part of the lawsuit.

Michelle Bishop:

Part of a class action suit? That’s pretty amazing, actually. I don’t want to say that I don’t know a lot about class action lawsuits, but I have seen Erin Brockovich, so I’m pretty much an expert on this.

Erin Haire:

I think so.

Michelle Bishop:

Thank you to Erin who has a lot of [inaudible] for backing me up on that.

Erin Haire:

The basics. You get a good rundown.

Michelle Bishop:

That’s amazing. Shout out to Barry Taylor in Illinois who is just incredible and leading the charge. We appreciate you.

Erin Haire:

And we know that this stuff is happening in every other state. Every other state that has a P&A is finding abuse and neglect instances and we’re hopeful that litigation like this will shed a light on those other states and encourage them to do the same.

Michelle Bishop:

That’s amazing. Should we get to our special guest today and start talking Election Protection?

Stephanie Flynt:

Let’s do it.

Michelle Bishop:

All right.

And our very special guest today is actually Marcia Johnson Blanco, who is the co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where she manages multiple projects around voter engagement, census engagement, and voting rights. Having earned her JD at Villanova, Marcia has testified before Congress, is featured in the international documentary Democracy Maybe, and her essay on voting rights is part of an exhibit at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. Notably, Marcia organized two national commissions that documented discrimination and voting for Congress and served as a member of the litigation team to defend the Voting Rights Act when its constitutionality was challenged in 2007. And you all know we’ve been talking a lot about the Voting Rights Act the last couple of years when it comes to that right to voter assistance. Marcia also oversees the work of Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition. And that’s actually what we want to chat about with her today. So Marcia, thank you so much for joining us.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Thank you so much for having me. NDRN is a valued partner of the EP coalition. So glad to be here and talk about our collective work.

Erin Haire:

Marcia, thank you so much for being with us today. I’m thrilled to learn a lot about your organization and I know that we have some newer voting rights advocates and attorneys in our network. Would you just start by giving us a rundown of what Election Protection is?

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Yes. So Election Protection was first established in 2001 after the 2000 election, which seems like a lifetime ago, but if you remember, it was a close one decided by the Supreme Court, and really whether this looked at whether votes in Florida would be counted. At that time, there was a very aggressive program against keeping voters off the roles, accusing those who didn’t have felony convictions of having felony convictions or just making it harder for voters to actually vote on election day. And so what the civil rights community realized is that there was a need to have a program on election day to provide assistance to voters. And out of that came the Election Protection coalition, which has grown into a coalition of over 300 national and state organizations who work with voters to make sure they have the access to the ballot and to have that ballot counted and then to, now, [inaudible] and to make sure that that count is not nullified by political partisans.

It also consists of a suite of voter protection hotlines. The Lawyers Committee administers the 866-Our-Vote hotline, but there’s also the 888-VE-Y-VOTA hotline that’s administered by NALEO Education Fund and that’s the Spanish and English hotline. And then we have the Asian languages hotline 888-API-VOTE, and then the Arabic language hotline, 844-YALLA-US. And we sometimes partner with other hotlines, which is something I know we talked about before. The hearing impaired hotline as well. So the hotlines are a way for voters to get questions answered about the voting process as well as reporting problems that they face when voting. In addition to the hotlines, there’s very active infrastructures across the states. Right now we are in more than 30 states where there are poll monitors at polling places helping voters to be able to vote as well. So it’s a vast undertaking that has grown tremendously over the years and which we are now proud to say is a fixture in our elections landscape, but also disheartened that it’s still really needed more and more because of the ongoing challenges to the vote.

Michelle Bishop:

Okay. The 2000 election, as much of a debacle as that was, it’s a little bit the gift that keeps on giving. Election Protection coalition, shout out to the Help America Vote Act. You mentioned the hotlines and that’s great. We’ll make sure that the hotline information goes out with this podcast episode today so that folks have access to that. But I was wondering, what options do voters have for contacting Election Protection? What are your options on election day, during early voting, or maybe any other day of the year? Can people call the hotlines and do they have other options? I know in the past sometimes you’ve been able to chat with someone through the website or text a volunteer.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Yes. And so, Michelle, sad to say it’s not just about election day anymore. So I’ve been training myself to say the voting period.

Michelle Bishop:

So true. It’s so true. I’m not good at that at all. I have to practice too.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

So you right. Right now, voters can call the hotlines. The 866-OUR-VOTE hotline is currently answering calls live from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM regionally. And so that one means no matter where you are in the country, we are open until 7:00 PM local time. Can call right now. And then those hours will be extended as we get to closer to the election day. And then during election day, all the hotlines are going to be answering calls live during polling hours. It’ll basically be for the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline. It’ll basically be from 5:00 AM to midnight Eastern Time. And so yes. Right now, you have a question particularly about the process, particularly given that states have changed the rules since 2020, you’re making a plan to vote and you need to know, do I need an identification? Any of that information, please call now. Trained volunteers that are available to help. And as you mentioned, Michelle, in addition to the calling, you can access the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline via text, 866-OUR-VOTE, text 866-OUR-VOTE. We’re working on getting our short code. Didn’t realize it was such an administrative nightmare to do, but we’ll get there over time. But right now you can text 866-OUR-VOTE. And then there is also through the website, 866ourvote.org. There’s a web chat function. So yes. All the ways to get in touch with us.

Michelle Bishop:

Okay. I know Stephanie has a question for you, but I have to interrupt and ask, can you also hit up Election Protection on social media? Can you tweet at us? Or this brings me to the really important part. Can you TikTok at Election Protection? Because Stephanie is a known disabled TikToker.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

We can’t now TikTok while we’re looking at all the platforms to be able to engage folks. Stephanie, I may need to follow up with you afterwards to figure out how we do that effectively. We are on Twitter, 866 Our Vote, and we are on Facebook, 866 Our Vote. We have a Instagram presence, but we are trying to get better about our social media engagement. We’re good on the older platforms, but working to improve our presence on the newer ones.

Michelle Bishop:

I look forward to 2024 when there is a viral Election Protection TikTok dance. Okay. I’m sorry, Stephanie. Take it away.

Stephanie Flynt:

Yeah, no, for sure. And before I ask my question that I have for you, I just want to commend you and applaud you for coming up with these multimodal ways and trying to make sure that, for starters, things are in multiple languages, but also there are multiple ways so that individuals can contact you. And I can tell you right now that in the disability community, for us, that is extremely crucial, and of course knowing that other minority groups intersect with folks in the disability community. But all that to say, I’m curious to know what kind of calls, text messages, Tweets, Instagrams, all the things, what those kind of reports do you receive and what have been some of your most concerning reports that you’ve known of?

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Yes. So it depends on what type of time of year it is what type of calls we get in. So right now we are getting the how do I access the process type of calls. We encourage folks to call to verify their voter registration. This is something we really emphasize because a lot of times when voters encounter problems at the polling place is because they may not be on the rules. And the reason they may not be on the rules is because there’s an issue with their voter registration. So try to take care of that on the front end. And we particularly push that because unfortunately we’ve gotten the saddest calls is when someone calls and said, I went to vote and I was turned away because I was not on the roles. And we always start with, oh, let’s check your voter registration. When did you register? And hear I needed to register in order to be able to vote?

So it’s part of that voter education and the basics. But apart from the process and the concerning calls are those who did what they were supposed to do. Either showed up at the polling place or requested their vote by mail absentee ballot in a timely manner and could not vote through no fault of their own. So it could be I show up at my polling place and it’s not open and this is the only time I have to vote before I have to go to work and I can’t stick around and wait, we’ve gotten those calls. Or I’ve shown up and the equipment isn’t working and either the poll workers haven’t been instructed to use alternative ways for me to be able to vote, or I need access to equipment that isn’t available for me to be able to vote independently.

Other concerning calls are around absentee ballots where the ballots were not received on time through no fault of the voter or have been rejected because of signature mismatch. And unfortunately, states like Texas and Georgia since 2020 have passed these really restrictive laws around absentee ballots where your signature has to match exactly as it appears on your voter registration. Do I remember how I signed my voter registration form? I do not. Having done so so long ago. And then we have these so-called handwriting experts in the elections offices who are making the judgment that there’s a signature mismatch. And because of that, we’ve seen in the primaries this year, particularly in Texas, that has passed this really restrictive laws around vote by mail. It was a 13% rejection of absentee ballots where in past primaries it was 2% and it had to do with the signature matching aspects there.

Also, we’ve seen a rise in calls about intimidation at polling places and it’s really difficult because they’re people who are outside of the electioneering boundaries who are harassing voters. And then one of the feedback, well they’re outside of the electioneering boundaries, and yelling at voters, admonishing them, getting in their face when they’re trying to vote in a very aggressive manner is not acceptable. What do we do about that in lots of our communities? Calling the police is not seen as a viable option because having a police presence doesn’t necessarily make people in the communities feel safer. So that’s a challenge that we are facing. And then I would say on the voter assistance side of things, we’ve gotten calls where voters were denied their assistance of choice, were denied access to curbside voting, for example. And then also for voters who need language assistance, their eligibility to vote being questioned because they asked for assistance to be able to vote either in their language of choice as required under the Voting Rights Act or just needing someone there to help them with being able to vote. So that’s the gambit of lots of concerning questions that we get to the hotline.

Stephanie Flynt:

Yeah, absolutely. And it’s interesting, as you were talking, I was like, I want to comment on this, I want to comment on this. And then I realized I probably could take up the entire rest of this episode plus four or five more. But what I will say is that clearly something needs to be done because, regardless, this is a universally problematic issue across so many minority groups. I know that Erin has another question for you as well.

Erin Haire:

All these extremely concerning calls that you are seeing, and that I know our state partners, advocates and attorneys are seeing in the States, is there a game plan for attorneys to activate if there’s a widespread issue during the voting period?

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

There is indeed. So I mentioned in addition to the hotline we have field programs across the country and over 30 states, and what those field programs consist of are what we call command centers where we have attorneys and community partners who are working together to address problems. So as a problem comes into the hotline or is reported from a polling place, we are not just recording the problem, there’s follow up that’s happening with election officials to address the problem in real time. And if they’re not inclined to do so, we’ve even bought litigation on election day, for example, when a polling place did not open on time to get ours extended. And it’s actually very much a group effort when something like that happens because there’ve been instances, and Michelle has been at our national command center when this has happened, is that we’ve gotten a successful poll extension.

That means the partner on the ground having to go to that polling place to make sure that the election officials there don’t close the door in the face of voters because it’s seven o’clock, but no, you’re now extended to nine o’clock. And those who are in line have to be able to vote a regular ballot or a provisional ballot as a case may be. But it’s partnering with election officials before voting begins. So we have a plan in place when a problem pops up, who are we going to be in contact with, and following up with them on resolving that problem along the way.

Michelle Bishop:

Talking about the different types of calls that you get from voters, I have been a volunteer on the phones even before I was at National Command Center, back at the state level one time. My favorite call I’ve ever assisted a voter with was a woman in 2008 who was literally in labor in a car on her way to the hospital to give birth, and she had not voted yet. And she wanted to know what her options were to make sure, because she was about to have a tiny human and she was not going to miss her chance to vote. So that woman’s basically my hero. But the volunteers who are taking a lot of these calls, how prepared are they to answer questions about access for voters with disabilities if they call?

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

We have what we call frequently asked questions that the volunteers refer to, but they also have guidances that they’ve actually taken from reports that NDRN has done and all the partners that they use as point of references. And I will also say that as part of the work that’s being done on the ground in building our state command centers, I know our partners are reaching out to the NDRN affiliates in the states to be experts there. And to the extent that anyone listening wants to know how to plug into that infrastructure, reach out to Michelle because I know she has the answer or can connect you to someone who does. But we have the general voting information, but we also have information specific to voters that have particular needs. And so, Michelle, I’ll share with you what we have, the extent that anything is missing, let us know because we want to make sure that our volunteers have all the resources they would need to effectively support voters with disabilities.

Stephanie Flynt:

Yeah, no, those are all really great points and I’m so glad that you kind of brought that up because I feel like it kind of leans in a little bit into our next question because one thing, of course, that our network of protection and advocacy systems try to do is of course we try to educate folks. Some of them also have some of the various phone lines in various ways that individuals can report issues with voting, individuals with disabilities can report issues with voting. And so I definitely am curious, and I know some of our listeners are probably going to be familiar with this, but I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to how the Election Protection, how they work with the protection and advocacy systems.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

So as I mentioned, we have the command centers in our various states that are right now putting together the infrastructure to respond to problems on election day. And so part of that is working with our community partners to be a resource for voters should particular issues arise. And we have each state building their infrastructure. And so again, I would want to encourage folks who are listening to the podcast, if you want to know particularly how you can engage or to make sure that the Election Protection structure in your case, in your state is engaging with your particular organization to make sure that that support is available. Please follow up with me so we can make sure that’s happening. And Stephanie, I hope that answered your question.

Stephanie Flynt:

Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Thank you so much for shutting some light

Michelle Bishop:

On that. Yeah, that does for sure, actually. And I love when the PNAS from our network get involved in Election Protection and on election day when we’re at the National Command Center, I can see calls coming in about disability and see what voters are calling about from various states and see the notes that the volunteers have entered. And the number of times I see that’s referred this to so and so, or we immediately called so and so, and I’m like, oh, yeah, that’s the PAVA person or the legal director at the P&A. They literally know staff at our organizations to call for disability questions that they can’t resolve. It’s like my work here is done. I’m just going to go vote and get my sticker and go home. We got this. So we love to see P&As get involved. If it’s not too late, you mentioned it before, should they just reach out to me if they want to find out how they can get better involved?

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Yes. Because as the states are building their infrastructure, and Michelle serves as our expert on the National Command Center to make sure that we are properly addressing issues that voters with disabilities have and the states are building similar infrastructures and looking for experts to make sure that all the issues across the board are adequately and properly staffed. So anyone who’s listening and thinks, oh, is this happening in my community? How do I get involved? Reach out to Michelle and we can work on coordinating to make sure that we make those connections.

Michelle Bishop:

All right. You heard it here first. Election Protection coalitions in various states are looking for disability rights experts to help them do the work that they do. They want to work with you. So please don’t hesitate to reach out and we’ll make sure we get some Election Protection information out with this episode as well. And Marcia, thank you so much for joining us today. This was super informative. I know we have a bunch of folks who are new to our network who just may not be as familiar with Election Protection who will probably be really excited to get involved now. So thank you so much.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Well thank you so much for having me. And Michelle, I was chuckling when you said, oh, my work here is done, and like haha, because your work is there all during election day with us.

Michelle Bishop:

It’s never done.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Making sure that we’re doing the best possible job we can to support voters with disabilities and definitely welcome the opportunity for your P&As in the states to join those efforts. It’s rough out there and all of our work is needed.

Michelle Bishop:

I know the job is never really done, but a girl can dream.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

And I’m here to undermine that. Misery loves company and all that.

Michelle Bishop:

One day I’ll be one of those people who just shows up to vote, takes my sticker, and then I just stop thinking about it. That’s not true. That’s never going to happen. That’s never going to happen. But Marcia, thank you so much for joining us today and for all your just fearless leadership around these issues. We appreciate it so much. And everybody, there’s still time. Don’t forget to vote.

Marcia Johnson-Blanco:

Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Bishop:

So on this very special episode of the Panda Pod, all about elections, we actually have a really cool spotlight story today from you may recognize her as a former host of the Panda Pod, Erica Hudson, who used to work in our public policy department at NDRN who is currently off pursuing regimes in Sweden right now, has graciously agreed to join us today and talk about her experiences as a poll worker with a disability in 2020. Erica, take it away.

Erika Hudson:

Thank you, Michelle, and hello everyone. It’s good to be back in one of the best podcasts ever, the Panda Pod. Want to talk about my experience as a poll worker, and for some background, I became involved as a poll worker when NDRN was working with Power The Polls and signed up through their portal recognizing that I could be a poll worker in my area. So I did that and signed up through Power The Polls and then got connected to my district, which was in Virginia, in Arlington specifically, and got assigned and it was pretty straightforward becoming a poll worker and really smooth and really fun actually. But it was a little different because it wasn’t 2020 during the height of the pandemic. So a lot of the things we did before the election were virtual, of course, so we didn’t get to meet that many folks.

And then a lot of our training was Covid related, to be honest, going into it, which is understandable. But the training was really straightforward. I will say I remember being quite intrigued because they only very slightly touched on accessibility. They said they would cover all that on election day and didn’t think it was too necessarily to talk about it. In their defense, they did mention it briefly. They had a slide on their presentation that had one of the accessible voting machines. But that was it. And then I was one of those people I think who asked an excessive amount of questions related to accessibility, which I don’t know if they appreciated. But nonetheless, that led us to election day, early day, started out like four-ish. Fortunately my polling place that I was assigned to was in my building, so I had no excuse to be late even though I’m not a morning person.

And in the morning we just set up. And it was really interesting because I noticed very quickly that the accessible voting machine was not going to be set up and was told that, oh, we didn’t have to worry about that because no one uses it. And that was my first opportunity to share the fact that I used that. And legally we need to make sure the accessible voting machine is set up. As a result, begrudgingly, they did set up the accessible voting machine and we got it hooked up, which was good and legally required, if I might say so. Then the day started and we were a good number of poll workers working and it was pretty straightforward because I think in our area a lot of people voted by mail. So it was pretty simple for us throughout the day and a lot of us were just kind of showing people where they had to go and what they had to do.

And I admittedly had an extra eye on accessibility and making sure things were accessible, especially since our polling location was in a gym, kind of like a yoga studio, where the door was opening to the street. So there was a lot of cones and tape that had to be in place to ensure that we had clear lines. And throughout the day, I think I was asking a lot of questions related to accessibility, given my personal experience to that. I think we had no one use the accessible voting machine all day except for the end of the day when I had to step away to do a curbside vote for someone, which was really cool to be able to do. And then I came back about 10 minutes later when someone finally used the accessible voting machine, but we didn’t know how to use it.

So we had to help them vote and they couldn’t vote privately and independently. And I was like, oh, goodness. Here we are. I guess the headphones didn’t work so someone couldn’t see the screen, which was really disappointing that coworkers hadn’t received the training to do that. And I guess I wasn’t there because I was doing a curbside vote. They were still able to vote, which is the important piece of it, but really frustrating that it wasn’t fully accessible. And then keep in mind this individual did vote through that machine and for the rest of the day they knew we had a ballot that came from the accessible voting machine and that was the only one. So it was very clear given only one person had voted on that accessible voting machine that who that was, which was really discouraging and disappointing in my opinion, knowing that didn’t provide full privacy and independence to that.

But I will say I think I was able to ask a lot of questions and get a lot of responses back during my time as a poll worker and other people had a lot of questions about accessibility because it’s very clear that a lot of people didn’t have that much background on it, especially when it comes to voting, which kind of solidified my want to be a poll worker was to make sure that accessibility was at the front and center of our elections and voting in the US. Especially during 2020, a really important year. But it was a long day. I remember that it was like 60… No, that’s dramatic. It was 12 hours at least of being a poll worker. But I would do it again if I was still in America for this upcoming election that’s in November, which is exciting. So encourage anyone to be a poll worker and it’s a really incredible and important opportunity. And more people need to talk about accessibility in the polls because, from my experience, not a lot of people knew what accessibility at polling places looked like. So we need more advocates to be doing that if the opportunity is there. So yeah, I think that’s my story. Do it again. Loved it, but don’t miss the long days. But other than that, recommended it. That was my story of being a poll worker.

Michelle Bishop:

That spotlight story, it’s like Erica going undercover as a spy for us in the world of elections administration because it validates literally everything we say about how they don’t take enough time to train poll workers on accessibility and the accessible equipment. And this is what happens. Or that when you just have one voting machine for people with disabilities, often a corner somewhere, they don’t set it up and they don’t know how to use it and only one person gets to vote on it all day when other people may have chosen to vote on the machine. And that protects the secrecy, the ballot, just everything we say goes wrong. It’s like here is the firsthand account, that this is what happens. Erica, thank you so much for your service as a poll worker and more importantly for your service as a former host of the Panda Pod. We’re going to have to plan some sort of American Swedish crossover episode, so start thinking about that now.

Erika Hudson:

Oh, biggest dream, and I appreciate it. And I will just say too, that voting machine was indeed in the corner of the polling place in a dark far out corner behind the registration table. And then a lovely poll worker, if I may say so my myself, walked up to the chief poll worker and said, that can’t be in the corner. So not going to say who it was, but someone saved the day by not having it in the corner. So everything that you just said, so true, and why we need people to work on this for sure. Like yourself, that you’re doing. So thank you, Michelle. And thanks for having me on Panda Pod again. Love it. Miss it. Dream it.

Michelle Bishop:

Erica, thanks so much for sharing your spotlight story today. And I think we are ready to wrap up. This has been an incredible episode all about elections. One more reminder that November 8th is midterm election day. So if you have not voted yet, make sure you cast your ballot by November 8th. Now I’m thinking, wait, I’m reflecting guys about the slow voting team takeover of NDRN’s podcast because I’m on the voting team and Erin’s on the voting team. But guys, Stephanie’s on the voting team. Stephanie is our public policy person who works on voting issues. This is a successful three out of three hosts that are on the voting team. Jack, our producer’s, on the voting team. Guys, we have successfully taken over the podcast. It only took two episodes. I am so proud of us.

Stephanie Flynt:

I’m here for this.

Michelle Bishop:

Stephanie, hit us with a voting joke. Give me one of your best. Stephanie has terrible jokes, y’all.

Stephanie Flynt:

Is Michelle okay? She seriously asking me to tell a joke right now? Cause she never does that, y’all. Can someone please go check on her, make sure she’s okay? I’m not used to this.

Michelle Bishop:

I thought it would be a good way to celebrate our successful takeover of the podcast for November.

Erin Haire:

Yes. Yes.

Stephanie Flynt:

Oh, if you insist, I guess I’ll do an original one. What do you call a dancer who votes?

Michelle Bishop:

I already regret doing this.

Stephanie Flynt:

A ballotrina.

Michelle Bishop:

That is it for the Panda Pod in November. Please remember to go vote. We’ll see you all in December with a topic that we are definitely going to figure out right now. So see you next month, y’all.

Jack Rosen:

And for more disability related content, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also visit us at ndrn.org.

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